‘Unconscionable’: Horwath on Ford blocking long-term care inquiry

QUEEN’S PARK — Official Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath released the following statement after the Ford government voted down an NDP motion calling for a full, independent public inquiry into Ontario’s long-term care system:

“It’s unconscionable for the Ford government to refuse to launch a full, independent public inquiry into how badly Ontario’s long-term care system has failed vulnerable seniors, and how to fix it. Voting no to a public inquiry is salt in the wound of families grieving the loss of loved ones to COVID-19 in long-term care, and for health care heroes who are run off their feet and still pleading for personal protective equipment. It is a cause for us all to worry that the painful, dangerous, decades-in-the-making problems in long-term care are not going to change.

To fix the system, we need to give a voice to seniors, workers, experts, and families who’ve lost loved ones. We need to closely examine the role of private, for-profit corporations in long-term care.

The NDP wants this public inquiry to be find-and-fix — which means we can urgently address the problems in long-term care as soon as they’re identified. In fact, we could start that today with a permanent $4 raise for personal support workers, by creating minimum care hours for each resident, and with regular mandatory comprehensive inspections.

For the government to review the government with a behind-closed-doors government-controlled commission is not good enough. People deserve better.”